In a True Light

For Sloane, the past is never far from the present in this page-turner of a novel from John Harvey, hailed by the London Times as "the King of Crime." At sixty, Sloane, a talented if unsuccessful painter, has just finished serving two years for art forgery when he receives a mystifying letter from Jane Graham, the older woman and more celebrated painter with whom he had a passionate affair years before. Summoned to her deathbed, Sloane learns that with her he fathered a child, Connie, from whom Jane has become estranged. Jane's last wish is that Sloane find their daughter. Sloane agrees, and his troubles begin when he locates the unhappy Connie, who is wasting her bluesy voice singing in New York's low-rent jazz clubs. She is also wasting her life on Vincent Delaney, her mob-connected manager who may have killed his last mistress. Sloane could leave, but an unfamiliar paternal instinct leads him into a maelstrom of criminal violence, a risky police investigation, painful alliances, hard truths, and increasingly dangerous consequences. "Harvey's writing is beautifully nuanced, his sense of story impeccable, his characters unforgettable."—Jonathan Kellerman "A pitch-perfect, pulp noir cocktail from a true master."—George P. Pelecanos